Question:easy
The best test / gold standard test for assessing hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) is?
The best test / gold standard test for assessing hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) is?
Show Hint
Think of the most sensitive radiolabelled quantitative beta-hCG assay.
Updated On: Jun 24, 2026
- Radioimmunoassay
- ELISA
- Latex agglutination test
- Bioassay
Show Solution
The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
The question wants the reference (gold standard) method for measuring hCG, so the winner must be the one with the highest analytical sensitivity and specificity. Run through the choices by their detection thresholds. The latex slide test only flips positive when urine hCG is fairly high, making it a crude screening tool, not a benchmark. Bioassays rely on a biological end point in animals and are obsolete because they are slow and poorly reproducible. ELISA performs well and dominates routine laboratories today, yet historically it is not the named gold standard. Radioimmunoassay measures hCG by competitive binding against a radioactively tagged tracer; this gives it the power to detect minute quantities of the beta-hCG subunit with excellent specificity, which is exactly why textbooks crown it the gold standard quantitative assay. Therefore RIA is the correct pick.
\[\boxed{\text{Radioimmunoassay}}\]
\[\boxed{\text{Radioimmunoassay}}\]
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